ITU and the IEEE will hold a workshop
on carrier-class Ethernet, 31 May- 1 June.

Much work has been done in both organisations to progress Ethernet, developed
as an enterprise technology, into a carrier service. The event will focus on
opportunities for further collaboration.

Long-recognized as the ubiquitous LAN technology, Ethernet is now seeing
increased attention as a carrier-grade service. In part this is due to the
convenience of being able to simply provide end-to-end service, but also
carriers can realize savings both in terms of capital and operational
expenditure.

Ethernet services are becoming popular because they allow carriers to offer
considerably improved flexibility to customers through a much simpler and lower
cost interface. Ethernet allows users to specify exactly how much bandwidth
they want between the 10Mbit/s and 1Gbit/s range currently offered. Further,
Ethernet provides reduced operation complexity and improved scalability for
carriers. And as operators look to NGN and the use of the Internet Protocol
(IP), Ethernet is seen as the best fit, especially given the rise of such
services as IP VPNs, VLANs and dedicated Internet access.

The event will start with an overview of the standards work from ITU-T and IEEE
and will then drill down into detail with sessions focusing on: Ethernet based
and Ethernet capable access networks; Ethernet network transport; Ethernet
Bridging architecture; Ethernet OAM and management; Ethernet QoS, timing and
synchronization. A closing session will bring together reports from all of the
session chairs in order to identify the direction of future work.

A new Recommendation from SG12 acts as a performance planning tool for videophone
applications taking into account the effects of video as well as voice quality.
The computational model described is for point-to-point interactive videophone
applications including dedicated videophone terminals, desktop or laptop
PCs, PDAs and mobile phones over IP networks.

Recommendation G.1070 gives an algorithm that
estimates videophone quality in terms of quality of
experience/quality of service (QoE/QoS). The model is designed
to be used by QoE/QoS planners to help ensure end-to-end user
satisfaction and to avoid over-engineering at the application, terminal,
and network layers.

Study Group 12 consented a new Recommendation that provides a way to
give consistency to performance measurements in high layer protocols such
as FTP, HTTP etc.

The Recommendation, ITU-T Recommendation Y.1562,
may be used by service providers in the planning, development, and assessment
of IP service to check that it meets user performance needs; by equipment
manufacturers to give performance information that will affect equipment
design; and by end users in evaluating higher layer protocol service
performance.

A revised workplan for some of the Questions in Study Group 12 will include specific mention of IPTV Quality of
Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS).

The latest meeting of Study Group 12, Geneva, January, also saw
agreement on a definition for QoE. This, experts said, is particularly
important given the inclusion of QoE in the definition of IPTV agreed by the
ITU-T IPTV Focus Group. (See previous story).

Quality
of Experience (QoE)

The
overall acceptability of an application or service, as perceived subjectively by
the end-user.

2 Overall
acceptability may be influenced by user expectations and context.

Study Group 12 Vice Chair, Chuck Dvorak, said
that he expects that IPTV and other multimedia QoS and QoE issues will see
increasing attention in SG12 moving forward.

Dvorak also said that he expects that the
non-transport aspects of networks and services, for example call processing
performance, will also receive more attention. Additionally he says that he
expects SG12 will take a closer look at how to better address the needs of
developing countries in terms of QoS.

The Focus Group meeting in Geneva,
January, worked on specifications that will enhance communications in
vehicles. Using as a starting point a specification developed by the German
Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) the
Focus Group is looking to improve a draft Recommendation – P.Carhft –
under development by ITU-T’s Study Group 12. The
Focus Group concept allows for non-members, in this case the auto industry to
participate.

A first priority is to deal with speakerphone audio quality, aiming to
provide a specification that will help to improve the speech- and sound -
quality between different devices. Second priority is requirements for headsets
including wireless. Chairman of the group, Hans Gierlich of Head Acoustics
noted also that a major problem for the car industry is car-to-car
communications.

While first concentrating on narrowband speech (3.4kHz), the group will
eventually move into better quality - wideband (8kHz). Input is also required
in the area of testing for interaction between the network and hands-free
terminals. In addition speech recognition will be addressed.

A second FG meeting hosted by HARMAN/BECKER Automotive Systems is
planned for March 15 in Ulm,
Germany
following the ITU, ISO and IEC event, The
Fully Networked Car, Information and Communication Technologies in Motor
Vehicles. The event taking place at the Geneva Motor Show will review
and examine the implications of the latest developments in this fast-moving
market. A significant value-add will be an exhibition showcasing the latest
technologies in the field.

Lightwave
Europe has recently published an article on ITU-T Rec. G.655. The standard extends
the use of fibre previously used mainly in core networks to metropolitan or
regional networks. Crucially it also has the potential to greatly reduce
operating costs for network providers.

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